Website Builder Comparison 2026: Jimdo, IONOS, STRATO, Wix and Squarespace, Honestly Compared
"Which website builder is best?" is one of the most-asked questions when a first website is due, and the honest answer is: it depends. Most comparisons list ten providers with stars and pretend there's one winner. We do it differently. We look at the few criteria that actually matter, sort the best-known builders honestly against them, and say plainly for each where it wins and where it costs you. Each one has a deeper standalone article if you want to read on.
How we compare: the criteria that matter
A builder is more than a feature list. These six things decide whether you're happy a year from now:
- Price and bundling. Does the site come bundled with a domain, hosting and email, and what does that cost over time including add-ons?
- Design depth and editor. Can you get beyond the template to something that looks like your brand, and is editing a pleasure or friction?
- Ownership and exit. Do you own the site as portable code, or is it locked inside the provider's system? How easily can you leave later?
- EU hosting. Is your data hosted in the EU? For GDPR-conscious businesses in the DACH region, that matters.
- Moving without losing rankings. When you switch, do you keep your Google rankings, or is it manual work with risk?
- AI-readiness and multilingual. Can you change the site with AI on an ongoing basis, can AI search engines read it cleanly, and is a second language built in or an add-on?
The thread running through almost every comparison is the third point: ownership and exit. A cheap bundle is cheap to enter and expensive to exit, and the providers differ mainly in how they handle that trade.
The comparison at a glance
| What matters | Jimdo | IONOS MyWebsite | STRATO | Wix / Squarespace | ShiftPress |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Entry price | Very cheap | Cheapest | Very cheap | Higher | Higher |
| Hosting + domain + email bundled | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partly | Hosting included |
| Design depth | Limited | Limited | Limited | Strong | Custom code |
| Hosting in the EU | Yes | Yes | Yes (Germany) | Check per plan | Yes (Frankfurt) |
| Own / export the site | No (no export) | No | No | No | Yes |
| Move without losing rankings | Manual | Manual | Manual | Manual | Automatic |
| Editable with AI, ongoing | Only at build time | No | No | No | Yes |
| Multilingual | Limited | Limited | Limited | Limited / add-on | Included |
WordPress is deliberately missing from this table: it's not a builder but a flexible platform with its own trade (a lot is possible, a lot of upkeep). Where it fits and where it doesn't is in our WordPress alternatives for content sites, and for a smaller site specifically, the best WordPress alternative for a small business. One more builder not in the table but worth a look if you're on it: GoDaddy Website Builder alternatives.
Jimdo: the simplest start, the hardest exit
Jimdo, from Hamburg, is the builder for the very simplest start. Via the AI assistant Dolphin you're online in minutes, the bundle with domain, hosting, email and SSL is cheap, and hosting is in the EU. The catch: limited design depth and, most of all, no clean export. Your site can't be downloaded as a portable package, so a switch is a rebuild. Good for a plain site that stays that way. The full trade plus the move is in our Jimdo alternatives: a comparison and how to export your Jimdo site.
IONOS MyWebsite: the cheap bundle with EU hosting
IONOS (formerly 1&1) is one of Europe's largest hosts, and MyWebsite is its template-based builder, sold in a bundle with a domain, hosting and email. It wins on entry price and EU hosting. It costs you design depth, has an aging editor, and because everything is woven together, a later switch means untangling the bundle. The full comparison, including "cancelling IONOS and moving", is in our IONOS website builder alternatives.
STRATO: cheap, hosting in Germany
STRATO, from Berlin, is IONOS's closest rival: a cheap website builder, bundled with a domain, hosting and email, with data centers in Germany. Its strengths and weaknesses rhyme with IONOS almost one to one: a cheap entry, limited design, a bundle you have to untangle at move time. If German hosting was your reason, that's a real plus. How to move a STRATO site is in our STRATO website builder alternatives.
Wix and Squarespace: the nicer editor, their own lock-in
Wix and Squarespace are the step up on editing and design. The editors are nicer, the templates feel more current, and you're not tied to a cheap hosting plan. The price: their own lock-in. Your content and design live in their system, a later switch means a rebuild rather than exporting clean code, and the plans cost more than a bare bundle. Also check the hosting location if EU hosting matters to you. We go deeper in our Wix alternatives and Squarespace alternatives.
The plain static site: fast and yours, but no editor
At the other end is the plain static site: fast, pre-built HTML pages with no database and no plugins. It loads fastest, there's nothing to hack, it's cheap to host, and it truly is yours. The catch is editing: without a friendly editor, every change usually needs a developer. The honest picture is in the benefits and weaknesses of static sites.
ShiftPress: a static site's strengths, without the developer requirement
ShiftPress keeps a static site's speed, security and ownership and removes the part that normally needs a developer. Your site is clean code with no database and no plugins, which you edit by talking to an agent or clicking the element on the page, previewing, and publishing. Hosting is in the EU (Frankfurt), backups, SEO and multilingual are built in, and the move off your old builder runs with automatic redirects so you don't crash in Google. Where builders win: on the cheapest entry price and the pure convenience of a cheap bundle. For a single, never-changing page, a bundle is the simpler buy. ShiftPress is for owners whose site should grow, look distinctive, and belong to them.
The thing most comparisons skip: ownership and AI
Two things classic builder comparisons rarely weight decide more in 2026 than the template selection. Ownership: do you own the site as portable code, or do you only pay the exit price once you want to leave? AI-readiness: can you change your live site with AI on an ongoing basis, and can AI answer engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google's AI Overviews read your site cleanly and quote you? More and more people search there rather than in the classic Google list. A hosting-company builder is built for neither, and Jimdo Dolphin's "AI" only helps once, at build time. What makes a builder genuinely AI-ready is in what makes a website agent-ready. On ownership, it's worth knowing what "you own it" actually means in practice: with ShiftPress, for example, your site is clean code in your own GitHub repo you can take anywhere, which is the opposite of the builder lock-in above.
How to choose without overthinking it
Three questions cut through:
- Will the site stay simple, or grow? A small, stable brochure does fine on the cheap bundle from Jimdo, IONOS or STRATO. If it should grow or look distinctive, the ceiling comes, and it's cheaper to pick the right tool now than to move later.
- How much does leaving matter to you? If you never want to feel locked inside one provider's system, weight ownership and portable code heavily. That's where a plain static site or ShiftPress pull ahead, and Jimdo falls back the most because of the missing export.
- Who moves you, and do you need EU hosting? If you want to keep your rankings, keep EU hosting, and not hand-wire the redirects yourself, that combination is exactly what ShiftPress is built for. The rankings side of a move is in moving off your old platform without losing rankings, and the safe order to actually leave (move first, cancel last) is in how to cancel your website builder and switch.
From a builder to a site you own
ShiftPress brings your Jimdo, IONOS, STRATO, Wix or Squarespace site into clean code you own, hosted in the EU (Frankfurt), handles the move with automatic redirects so you don't crash in Google, and lets you edit the site yourself by chat or click, with multilingual, backups, SEO and hosting built in. Start free now.
Migrate my site ↗Frequently asked questions
Which website builder is best in 2026?
Which website builder is cheapest?
Which builder is best for a small business in the DACH region?
The bottom line
The best website builder is the one that fits your next year, not the one with the most stars. Jimdo, IONOS and STRATO win on the cheap, bundled start and EU hosting, but cost you design depth and a clean way out, Jimdo especially. Wix and Squarespace give you the nicer editor, at the price of their own lock-in. A plain static site gives you speed and ownership but needs a developer. ShiftPress aims to give you both: your own, EU-hosted code with easy, AI-powered editing, and a move that preserves your rankings. Read into the single comparison that matches your platform today, and decide from there.